Love National Geographic? Now you’re going to be really excited about what we have to share!

If you haven’t already heard, the live events division of the National Geographic Society, known as National Geographic Live, is coming to Singapore for the first time ever! Featuring live concerts, films, and dynamic presentations by today’s leading explorers, scientists, filmmakers and photographers, National Geographic Live is going to cover a wide range of topics including exploration and adventure, wildlife and habitat conservation, natural phenomena and relevant issues such as climate change.

Image credit: David Doubilet

This upcoming season of National Geographic Live in Singapore will be inaugurated at the Esplanade Theatres on the Bay and will take place from August to October 2014. Specifically, two events have already been lined up for you on the 25th of August and 9th of October 2014 – the first featuring legendary underwater photographer David Doubilet, and the second event featuring adventure filmmaker Bryan Smith. David’s personal challenge is to create a visual voice for the world’s oceans and to connect people to the incredible beauty and silent devastation happening within the invisible world below; while Bryan’s goal is to very consciously uses his film making craft to elevate important stories that will invigorate and inspire us to probe our limitations, and entertain us in new ways.

Behind every great National Geographic story is a storyteller who travels to the wildest places on earth to bring home epic tales of adventure and discovery. And behind every great National Geographic Live event are partners who bring the event to you. And today, we have the privilege of interviewing On Ground Partner of this amazing event, Gone Adventurin’, to share a little insight about the first ever National Geographic Live Event in Singapore.

About Gone Adventurin’

Gone Adventurin’ is a Singapore-based company that brings companies, communities and consumers together to tackle important social and environmental issues. It has helped various large corporations do well by doing good and showcasing their brands – e.g. Unilever brands Comfort and Lipton – in inspiring ways. The social enterprise is now partnering with the National Geographic Society to bring their flagship event series to Asia.

Tell us more about Gone Adventurin’ Bringing NatGeo Live in Singapore!

Gone Adventurin’ is On Ground Partner in two ways:

1. As young social entrepreneurs

National Geographic aims to “to inspire people to care about the planet”, a vision shared by Gone Adventurin’. As a young social enterprise, it’s an honour for us to work with such an iconic brand and enable them to inspire people across Asia. The message of caring about the planet has never been more important. And by creating partnerships with local companies and universities, we are creating a pragmatic and systemic approach to tackle environmental challenges.

As the official On Ground Partner for the series, Gone Adventurin’ has created partnerships with Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Quotient TravelPlanner for the 2014 National Geographic Live series.

2. As adventurers & artists

The event series is well aligned to Gone Adventurin’s focus on using film and media to engage various segments of society on their projects. “As a filmmaker and storyteller, I am personally looking forward to bring both David Doubilet and Bryan Smith to audiences in Singapore. Images and stories are one of the most important ways to engage audiences emotionally and drive behaviour change,” says Jacqui Hocking, Creative Director. The team envisages that as the series grows across Asia, we will see more young explorers coming from Asia who will work together to create collaborative solutions for this planet’s pressing challenges.

Why has NatGeo Live decide to expand to Asia and why Singapore first?

NatGeo Live was established 17 years in North America and has since expanded to Europe and Australia. Expanding to Asia enables audiences in Singapore and the Asian region to get close to their team of world-famous explorers, photographers, filmmakers, scientists and adventures – and experience interactive events that will make them more sensitive about the geographical and social issues around the world, many of which are pressing issues in Asia. Their stories promise to captivate, enliven and motivate.

“National Geographic has wonderful brand recognition in Singapore – some of the highest rates across the region – and the Singaporean government are strong supporters of social enterprises and social and environmental movements – so Singapore as a first stop made perfect sense,” said Ashwin Subramaniam, Co-Founder of Gone Adventurin’.

How do you think this event is going to impact Singaporeans?

With our wonderful partners of Nanyang Technology University and Quotient Travel Planners, we’re able to open the events at very accessible prices to the Singapore public. It’s exciting that we’ll be enabling every day people in Singapore to get closer to social and environmental issues, without even leaving Singapore, and over the years, hopefully inspire the next generation of Asian explorers for NatGeo and the world!

As a team at Gone Adventurin’, we’ve been very fortunate to meet some very inspirational people and have experiences that enabled us to create our social enterprise and live our passions daily. Our two amazing NatGeo explorers – photographers and filmmakers – are living proof of this on an even greater scale! For example, David Doubilet’s personal mission is to ‘create a visual voice for the world’s oceans and to connect people to the incredible beauty and silent devastation happening within the invisible world below’. We hope this event will inspire more Singaporeans to carve out a career where they’re able to live their passions and have a meaningful life.

Would there be any follow-up events after the two events featuring photographer David Doubilet and filmmaker Bryan Smith?

Stay tuned for even more exciting series of events in 2015!

What is one thing you are most excited about for this event?

As ground partner, we’ll be working closely with the two explorers – David Doubilet and Bryan Smith – when they’re in town. As a team we’re very passionate about adventures, tackling social and environmental challenges, and storytelling – so to have the opportunity to spend a week with world-renowned explorers and environmentalists, David and Bryan, is an absolute privilege! Looking forward to lots of conversations and gaining their insights on tackling environmental and social issues throughout the world.

We can’t wait for the inaugural public event on August 25! Hope to see you all there or on 9th of October!

Image credit: Pablo Durana/National Geographic Channel

Head over here to get your tickets if you haven’t already done so. Best part of it? Proceeds from speaker series ticket sales will help to fund future national Geographic initiatives in field research, exploration, and education. You’ll be giving back to what you love!